Let us say, then, that both the realist and the antirealist accept the results of scientific investigations as "true," on a par wi...th more homely truths.... And call this acceptance of scientific truths the "core position." What distinguishes realists from antirealists, then, is what they add onto this core position ... a third alternative emerges--and an attractive one at that. It is the core position itself, and all by itself.... Let me introduce the acronym NOA (pronounced as in "Noah"), for natural ontological attitude, and, henceforth, refer to the core position under that designation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Gradually I regained my usual composure. I reread Pale Fire more carefully. I liked it better when expecting less. And what was th...at? What was that dim distant music, those vestiges of color in the air? Here and there I discovered in it and especially, especially in the invaluable variants, echoes and spangles of my mind, a long ripplewake of my glory.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

English general and singular terms, identity, quantification, and the whole bag of ontological tricks may be correlated with eleme...nts of the native language in any of various mutually incompatible ways, each compatible with all possible linguistic data, and none preferable to another save as favored by a rationalization of the native language that is simple and natural to us.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Listen, my friend, there are two races of beings. The masses teeming and happy--common clay, if you like--eating, breeding, workin...g, counting their pennies; people who just live; ordinary people; people you can't imagine dead. And then there are the others--the noble ones, the heroes. The ones you can quite well imagine lying shot, pale and tragic; one minute triumphant with a guard of honor, and the next being marched away between two gendarmes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »